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Young serial entrepreneur Scott Gerber is not the product of a wealthy family or storied entrepreneurial heritage. Nor is he the outcome of a traditional business school education or a corporate executive turned entrepreneur. Rather, he is a hard-working, self-taught 26-year-old hustler, rainmaker, and bootstrapper who has survived and thrived despite never having held the proverbial "real” job.

In Never Get a "Real" Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business, and Not Go Broke, Gerber challenges the social conventions behind the "real" job and empowers young people to take control of their lives and dump their nine-to-fives—or their quest to attain them.

Drawing upon case studies, experiences, and observations, Scott dissects failures, shares hard-learned lessons, and presents practical, affordable, and systematic action steps to building, managing, and marketing a successful business on a shoestring budget.

The proven, no-b.s. methodology presented in Never Get a "Real" Job teaches unemployed and underemployed Gen-Yers, aspiring small business owners, students, and recent college graduates how to quit 9-to-5s, become their own bosses, and achieve financial independence.

Q&A with Author Scott Gerber

Author Scott Gerber

The title of your book is “Never Get a Real Job,” but are you suggesting that there’s an entrepreneur in everyone? Millennials are no longer beneficiaries of the hand-out, resume-driven society of old. Boomers and Gen Xers need to stop training Gen Y to believe that the mantra of ‘work hard, get good grades, go to school and get a job’ that they were told to buy into, is alive and well. It’s not — it’s dead — and now it needs to be buried for good.

Fact: there are over 81 million young people unemployed worldwide. And this number does not account for the tens — if not hundreds — of millions more that are underemployed. It’s becoming more and more apparent that in today’s world, young people will need to create a job to keep a job. Millennials need to re-train themselves to become self-sufficiency experts capable of generating their own incomes. I truly believe everyone can become entrepreneurial and partner with individuals whose strengths fill in gaps and weaknesses. The key is for us to stop thinking “Facebook” and start thinking about practical, nuts-and-bolts, income-generating, on-the-ground businesses. When we finally turn that corner, Gen Y will truly become the most entrepreneurial generation in history.

How should young entrepreneurs go about determining if their “passion” can become a scalable business? The Hollywood-esque scene for most young entrepreneurs, where two guys are sitting at a bar, write their idea on a napkin and then proceed to build a gazillion dollar business is fiction — at least for 99.9999% of us. In truth, every entrepreneur needs to have a gut-check moment. They shouldn’t simply “believe” their idea will work as a business and get started. Rather, they need to prove it to themselves, poke holes in it, determine if it can generate real revenues — as well as how fast those revenues will start rolling in — and be able to defend their assumptions to their harshest critic. I know my detractors will mention “revolutionary” and “game-changing” companies such as Facebook and other Silicon Valley darlings that went on to raise millions, get acquired for billions, or go public. However, I would never advocate to young entrepreneurs, especially in our current economy, that jumping right into a business on passion alone is an advisable way to start a business.

What made you want to be an entrepreneur? The thought of working for someone else gave me chills. Office politics, dress down days, cubicle life, water cooler rants, a lack of real decision making ability--they all made me want to reach for Vodka and a bottle of Xanax. If I was going to fall flat on my face or go bankrupt, it certainly wasn't going to be because I let myself end up in a position where I could be underpaid or downsized without any warning. "Real" jobs, and the quest to attain one in the first place, didn't make sense for me--and they especially don't make sense now in the new, post-recession economy. I found all the arguments that "real" jobs are stable and secure to be ludicrous. After all, how stable and secure is ANYTHING that you don't control, own or have a real say in? And with ever-growing rises in outsourcing, globalization, on and offline educational institutions, and recessions, I know I absolutely made the right decision and have absolutely no issue telling others they should do the same in order to take control of their lives and financial futures.

Jobs are not going to materialize out of thin air just because politicians say they can make it happen.

The only job that is remotely safe for young people in this new economy is one of their own creation and design that they own and control. However, even though we live in a world of an over abundance of collegiate institutions, enhanced automation, increased globalization, and ever-growing outsourcing options, Gen Y is still being force fed that this age-old "send out resumes to get a job" is still relevant and applicable to today--when the reality is that this notion is anything but the actual reality. Yet there hasn't been any real action. Just empty promises and words from politicians and pundits. Nor has there been any sort of helping hand to teach Gen Y about the new way forward they must learn in order to stay competitive and effective. This needs to change.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A lot of business books hold your hand, make you feel good, and are set to convince you that your passion and "unique" business idea are enough to plow through your competition, garner new leads, and make millions just because you can write a business plan that says so.

This is not that kind of book.

A twenty-something hustler, rainmaker, and bootstrapper who has survived and thrived despite never having held the proverbial "real" job, Scott Gerber is the ultimate "Generation Y-er." He's a self-taught serial entrepreneur who built several successful businesses without storied business connections, a business school background, executive trainingor investment dollars. And in Never Get a "Real" Job, he shows you how he succeeded so you can overcome today's chronic conditions of mass unemployment, underemployment, and dead-end 9-to-5s.

Gerber gives you the no-bull reality on turning your business idea into a viable enterprise capable of generating real income nowbased on his hard-knocks lessons learned in the entrepreneurial trenches. From the perils of doing too much too fast, to bogging down a promising start-up with infrastructure long before it's needed, Gerber has experienced firsthand how you can sabotage your own business. Never Get a "Real" Job will help you avoid the costly mistakes that can take down your enterprise at any time, helping you to get off the ground, establish your business, and keep it successfully up and running.

But Gerber isn't just giving you a collection of war stories. He gives you insights from a fellow young entrepreneur on how to start from absolutely nothingbuilding a viable business model from the ground up. Along with straight-shooting advice on creating contacts and cultivating clients, he offers practical, affordable, step-by-step instructions on how to constantly analyze, refine, and target your business offeringswhile minimizing wasted time and keeping you on track.

With vast resources like online tools, Web sites, checklists, and hard coaching, as well as thousands of dollars worth of connections to free and discounted small business services, Never Get a "Real" Job takes you off the unrewarding resume and cover letter cycle, while putting you on the road toward becoming a self-sufficient business owner, and creating a life that gives you a real shot at the success you deserve.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Never Get A "Real" Job

"Practical. Irreverent. Insightful. If you read just one book this year about becoming an entrepreneur, make sure it's Never Get a 'Real' Job."Anita Campbell, founder, Smallbiztrends.com

"With the economic spiral of 2009, our world of work was blown up, and with it, traditional frameworks for career success. Thank god we have Scott Gerber, a member of the next generation, telling the truth about what it takes to succeed in the coming decades. Gen Y, and parents of Gen Y, you will put your livelihoods at risk if you don't read this book. Buy it."Pamela Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur

"Economic turmoil has made it more difficult than ever for Gen Y to have a breakout entrepreneurial success story. However, thanks to Scott Gerber, there's hope. He breaks it down, tells it like it is, and kicks you in the pants with his no-nonsense guide to getting started and achieving real successnow."Jeff Sloan, cofounder, StartupNation.com

"Scott is the Simon Cowell of young entrepreneurship."Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

"Wow! If all Gen Y-ers were like Scott, we'd never have to worry about our kids moving back into the basement after college. As filled with no-nonsense, practical, yet unpredictable advice as it is serious attitude, Never Get a 'Real' Job is a must-read for all aspiring entrepreneurs. No coddling herejust the straight-up truth from a very savvy guy who's been there and done that."Donna Fenn, author of Upstarts!: How GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success

"Scott doesn't give the sugar-coated advice that wannabe entrepreneurs like to hear. He gives the blunt guidance that real entrepreneurs can actually put to use."Andrew Warner, founder, Mixergy

"Never Get a 'Real' Job will help any readereven those without start-up finances or previous entrepreneurial experiencequit their quest for 9-to-5s and become self-sufficient small business owners."Steve Mariotti, founder, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)

"Never Get a 'Real' Job is a straightforward, funny, and insightful book for young entrepreneurs looking to make a name for themselves."Dan Schawbel, author of Me 2.0, and Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, LLC

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More About the Author

Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, an internationally syndicated business columnist, television commentator, and author of the book "Never Get a "Real" Job".

He's been widely recognized as the world's most-syndicated columnist on the subject of entrepreneurship. His columns appear regularly on TIME, Inc., MSN, CNBC, CNN, Mashable, The Next Web, and The Huffington Post. Scott is also a regular contributor on MSNBC, Fox Business and CNN.

Scott is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, a non-profit organization that promotes entrepreneurship as a solution to youth unemployment and under-employment, and co-founder of Gen Y Capital Partners, an early-stage investment company. He has been a featured speaker at the White House and has rung the NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell. In 2011, he was named one of Mashable's "4 Young Social Good Entrepreneurs to Watch. In 2012, he was named a "generation Y employment champion" by Fortune Magazine.

He has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, TIME, CNN, Reuters, Mashable, CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight, MSNBC, US News & World Report, Fox News, Inc. and Entrepreneur.

About The Young Entrepreneur Council

Described as "America's most elite entrepreneur organization" by Forbes, The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), founded by Gerber in 2010, is a nonprofit advocacy group with the mission of fighting youth unemployment and underemployment by helping young people build successful businesses and offering alternatives to traditional career paths. The organization has several hundred members, all successful entrepreneurs and business owners, ages 17-40 - a group that includes the founders and leaders of Living Social, Airbnb, Reddit, College Hunks Hauling Junk, Modcloth, Mint.com, myYearbook, Thrillist, Yodle, iContact, 2tor, Threadless, Grasshopper, Likeable, Hootsuite, Kissmetrics and Blip.tv.The YEC provides its members with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of a business's development and growth. In 2012, Forbes named the YEC "America's Most Elite Entrepreneur Organization.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

The title of the book is great. unfortunately, that's all it has going for it. The book is very negative, full of clichés, and doesn't delve meaningfully into the topics. It's more like sound-bites with a lot of ranting. I didn't walk away with any practical or actionable advice. It definitely doesn't deliver on the title, which I'd bet was just an afterthought they paid some clever marketer to come up with.

I'M CALLING SHENANIGANS!...

I thought to myself, How could such a terrible book be rated so highly?So I read through all the positive reviews (and welcome you to do the same).Funny thing, they all sounded the same! Very vague, slightly hyped, and in the same writing style. In fact, some of them are the same, just copy and paste jobs. Contrast that to the few negative reviews (I'm guessing not many people actually read this book) which sounded very genuine, like they had actually read the book.

Some better alternatives:

For a book that actually delivers on this books title, I would suggest 'The 4-hour workweek'(Timothy Ferris)

This wasn't worth the afternoon I wasted reading the entire thing. I kept going, hoping that the sinking feeling I had would go away, but it never really did.

Sure, I sort of bought into the first one or two chapters, as it reflected some of my own feelings and frustrations in my post-graduate life. But when he got into the actual nuts and bolts of his business approach, I found his attitude really off-putting, along with the constant references to MTV and other "culturally relevant" things that have apparently "warped" the thinking of my generation (seriously, even in the 90s MTV was hardly relevant anymore, dude).

I kept finding not only contradictions in his advice (you should be sincere and not put on airs, but you should also use "we" even if your enterprise is composed of entirely yourself, wha?), but also things that weren't that different from (and in many ways worse than) other entrepreneurial advice I've found on the internet (please check out some of the older entries in Lifehacker on the subject -- much more illuminating and less bitter and caustic). In addition, some of his approaches even made me feel really slimy or not at all useful for my own goals, and the book ends... with coupons. Yes, coupons, which he has so generously given to you, to "help" you toward your dreams! Keep it classy, Gerber :P.

Being a millenial, I was hoping he would have talked about more approaches specific to the internet, instead of the largely IRL stuff that has been covered better in other material. He seemed to only touch on the usual web services that can make cheapo-looking logos and websites that devalue the other hard-working professionals out there.Read more ›

I purchased this book on the recommendation of Peter Shankman via his Help a Reporter e-mail blast. I read the sample, read the reviews and thought that this would be one of those "must have" books for entrepreneurs.

I plowed through the first half but grew tired of Gerber's "get tough" attitude/lecturing. Gerber is not quite bloviating but his voice is pretty close. Luckily the second half of the book is much better. It's filled with useful lists of resources that you can probably find on Google using the right search terms* -- but it's nice to have them collected in one place.

This book is probably great for someone who just graduated from college and doesn't have a job. Although, if you've got a very limited budget, I might recommend The Zen of Social Media Marketing and -- perhaps -- Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business (another Shankman recommendation) as better choices for your buck. I can't fully recommend the latter, however, until I have finished reading it, Keep your eyes posted for the review....

*I only added the remark about Google because Gerber always stresses that you shouldn't pay for something that you can find on Google for free.

"Never Get a Real Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business and Not Go Broke," is as childish and shallow as its title and cover suggest. For those of you new to the world of entrepreneurship: STAY AWAY FROM THIS. It will damage your mind and potentially break your business, make you broke, and force you to crawl back to your boss. For the developed entrepreneur, this will make you laugh and shiver in disgust.

1. "Don't Waste time on a Business Plan" - this is one of the author's biggest points, and yet one of the most inaccurate. It is true that business plans are often thought as the "holy grail" of starting a business. However, the value of a business plan IS NOT THE PLAN ITSELF (in many cases). The value of such a compilation is the PROCESS of it. It enforces the members to learn their field, industry, and landscape and critically analyze their situation. Having such knowledge allows for start-ups to make quicker and more accurate decisions.

And now for the grand slammer that shows the author has very little awareness of his own actions...In the book he touts that one should make your business plan no more than a paragraph. However, what Mr. Gerber overlooks is that all of the "time he wasted on making a business plan," provided him with the knowledge and edge to get his business off the ground. The only reason his "paragraph plan" worked for him, is because he had already created a full business plan and extracted the value of the process.

2. "Shoestrapping" - Mr. Gerber's take on outsourcing is useful...BUT, it's a straight up rip-off of "The 4-hour Work Week." These chapters seem like he just read "The 4-Hour Work Week" and re-typed it in his own words.